Champions of business women have been honored each year since 2001 by the prominent civil rights organization Legal Momentum with its Aiming High Award. Stephanie Drescher, global head, business development and investor relationship management at Apollo Global Management, is one of three honorees this year.

Stephanie Drescher

The seventeenth annual Legal Momentum Aiming High Awards were presented at a luncheon on June 15 in New York City.

In addition to Drescher, this year’s award recipients are:

• Brad S. Karp, chair, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and winner of the Man of Distinction honor
• Lisa Garcia Quiroz, senior vice president, president of the Time Warner Foundation, and chief diversity officer of Time Warner

Economics and psychology might seem like an unlikely academic pairing for a Barnard College undergrad, but it was a natural combination for Stephanie Drescher—and one that helped inform her career. By applying the analytical aspects of economics with an understanding of what drives collaborative work environments, she developed a keen sense of how to achieve optimal results within complex organizations.

Drescher has since distinguished herself as one of the most successful women in the global private equity industry. After spending the first 10 years of her career at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a variety of roles, including serving on the boards of the firm’s private equity and venture capital businesses, she joined Apollo Global Management in 2009, heading the firm’s business development and investor relationship operations.

Founded in 1990, Apollo currently has $197 billion in assets under management, and Drescher has played an influential role in building the firm into the financial powerhouse it is today. Drescher recently reflected on her career and role as a mentor in a telephone interview.

How did mentorship position you for success in the financial sector?

Early on in my career, I saw many examples of women who were in leadership positions, and they were great role models for me. That was certainly one element of being able to see a path forward. Equally as important were men who throughout my career have served as mentors and sponsors. These people came to know me quite well and were crucial in helping guide me as I developed professionally.

One key piece of advice I received early on: think of yourself as the CEO of your own career and have a board of directors you can reach out to for advice as you encounter new challenges. That framework is one that I often share with others as they set out in their careers.

How does Apollo cultivate a collaborative atmosphere?

The first thing that comes to mind is our investment committee. Everyone is invited to contribute. If you are the most recent addition to the investment team, or you’ve been there since day one, everyone sits around one—now very big—table to discuss the investments. It’s a very deliberate way to create an opportunity for everyone to learn from one another, and evaluate each opportunity from different perspectives.

I think it’s a testament to the strength of our firm that we’ve been able to maintain such a productive, collaborative atmosphere even amid our tremendous growth. When I joined, we had fewer than 100 people and managed around $15 billion. Roll forward to today, and we’re managing upwards of $200 billion with more than 1,000 people on staff. Our core culture remains the same, which enables us to deliver best-in-class performance to our global investor base.

In your experience, are investors pressing more on diversity and inclusion issues?

It’s certainly a topic of increasing interest and conversation with our institutional investors. They have many choices as to where they invest their capital, and ultimately, they want to work with firms that are focused on doing their part in terms of diversity and inclusion.

How is Apollo working to fortify talent pipelines internally and in its portfolio companies?

We are proud of a number of initiatives that we started at Apollo. In 2014, we launched our veteran’s initiative, which encourages Apollo and its portfolio companies to recruit, hire, and retain veterans and their spouses. That has been a great success.

We also recently launched the Apollo Women’s Empowerment initiative, which I co-chair with our global head of credit. We have spent a great amount of time developing a steering committee with a number of initiatives to allow for development of our women networking, and engagement with industry groups, external leaders, and the community.

How do you serve as a mentor to young women?

It starts with a commitment to engage with the wider community, which is very important for all of us at the firm. A specific area of interest for me has been my involvement with the Young Women’s Leadership Network. It’s a group of all-girls schools in underserved communities that prepare their students for college. I think it’s just another way of ensuring that as we rise in our own careers, we look to lift those around us by serving as mentors, sounding boards, and role models.